Spooky Spelling

This school year, I have been creating our own spelling curriculum using free clip art on the web.  Each week I make flash cards depicting the spelling and vocabulary words and print them for Kylie to play with and use in her spelling activities.  Below are the first three weeks of our spelling words.  If you would like to print the flashcards, click on each picture)

Week One Spelling Words

I tried really hard to not use words that contained obvious phonics (such as "sh", "wh", "th", "ai").  I didn't think it was fair of me to expect her to spell words with phonics because I have not yet taught her phonics.

Week Two Spelling Words

So, for the most part, I stuck with 3 letter words that I knew she would easily know and understand. (you can easily modify this for any level of speller)

Week Three Spelling Words

As fall is most definitely here and Halloween is quickly approaching, I thought it would be fun to give our spelling lesson a "spooky" twist.

I gathered up a few tools that would be appropriate for scooping, pouring and sorting.

I then filled a large Rubbermaid container with a mixture of Black Beans and Black Eyed Peas.  My daughter is fascinated with the Black Eyed Peas.

I then placed her spelling word flashcards in the beans along with the words written on little cards. (I had previously laminated them for durability)

I then had Kylie help me hide all the cards in the beans until we couldn't see them anymore.

I then asked Kylie to find one picture in the beans.  After she had the picture, we then went on a hunt for the spelling of the word in the beans.

Once she found the match, we placed it in our muffin tin so she could see the correlation between the picture and the word.

Note:  Another great option to increase difficulty and to strengthen fine motor skills would be to have your child use tongs or tweezers to find and remove the cards.

This exercise was a great alternative to writing.  I didn't want Kylie to write her words as we have not yet completed teaching her the appropriate way to form her letters and I did not want to reinforce bad habits.

This was also a great way to give her a multi-sensory approach to learning.  She saw the words, heard how they sound, and touched the pictures while putting them together.

Tomorrow I have a more difficult exercise for Kylie's spelling lesson but it will be using these same resources (with a few more added in)...

Come back and check it out!!